[WikiEN-l] Citizendium

[Carcharoth]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 6:44 PM,  <WJhonson at aol.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 4/16/2009 4:02:18 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> wikimail at inbox.org writes:
>
>
>> Once you've released your writing, it can be "edited mercilessly" in
>> ways which are directly counter to your intent, and you're left with the
>> choice between abandoning credit for your work and being considered
>> responsible for the modifications of others (or, in the case of
>> Citizendium,
>> you're forced to choose the latter).>>
>>
>
> I dont' understand about this "responsible" part.
> Even though I've started many articles in-project that were later put in a
> state that I wouldn't want, I don't feel responsible for the current state
> of the article.

Interestingly, this feeds into a current discussion going on about the
use of PD text. The discussion (which may have got a little out of
hand, is on the talk page of the Signpost's article about plagiarism).
The basis of part of the subthread is whether it is morally right to
take someone's PD work, to republish it as a Wikipedia article (with a
template at the bottom providing attribution), and to then leave it to
the tender mercies of the Wiki editing process. At what point might
the author of the original PD text no longer want to be credited for
writing the text that "seeded" the eventual result on Wikipedia?

And does it make a difference if the author of the PD text is long
dead and the text is PD "by age" or if the author is alive and the
text has been released as PD by the author's employer, or if the
author himself released it as a PD text?

Or to put it another way - is it acceptable for Wikipedia to co-opt
other authors into the "collective credit" that the authors of a
Wikipedia article take for that article?

Carcharoth